“The ecological revolution is marked by the “Francis era””

La Croix: During the Latin American Episcopal Conference of 2007, the Pope admitted that he “understood nothing” about ecology. How do you perceive its evolution?

Louis Liberman: The major subject of the Latin American debate concerns the question of inequalities. Jorge Bergoglio exercised his pastoral activity in urban areas, in particular from 2007 to 2013, as Archbishop of Buenos Aires (Argentina). The emerging issue then was that of poverty and vulnerability. In his agenda, the ecological approach was not explicitly present.

His progressive awareness dates back to his trip, in 2013, to Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) for World Youth Day (WYD), with the Amazonian preaching of Cardinal Claudio Hummes and all the bishops of the Brazilian Episcopal Conference, which highlight the value of this ecoregion that is the Amazon, the problems of indigenous peoples, the woman of the Amazon as a figure of the Church, the impact of predatory extractivism that comes, among other things, from the illegal mining, indiscriminate deforestation, lack of regulation.

What happens from there?

LL: François begins to integrate ecological vocabulary into his speeches and develops a sermon that takes the form of a testimony and a call to action. His journey takes him from diagnosis (encyclical Laudato si’ in 2015) to the search for solutions (encyclical Fratelli tutti in 2020). The challenge is not to lose hope but, on the contrary, to feed on it. I invite you, he tells us, to bold hope. He urges us to go further.

Its pastoral work is directed towards the peripheries, the poor, the excluded, who are the first to suffer the impact of a degraded environment. François makes his vision of ecology more objective, while avoiding falling into a reductionist vision. He advocates an integral vision where “everything is interconnected as if we were one, everything is interconnected in our common home”. This universal vision allows it to rethink its position, to deepen it and to insert it in the agenda of the year 2015, where the encyclical Laudato si’, the COP 21, in Paris, the objectives of sustainable development converge. United Nations by 2030.

Can we identify milestones in its development?

LL: I don’t think we can isolate significant stages in its evolution. I would speak more of successive scenarios in which the environmental footprint has gradually modified its geopolitical vision. But I believe that he began to articulate a thought that dialogues with the environment from the identification, in poverty, migration and human trafficking, of the problems that cause human suffering.

It was during a seminar that we organized in 2011 at the University of El Salvador on environmental security that Francis used the metaphor of the “riachuelization” of poverty, referring to the deadly damage caused by the Riachuelo, a highly polluted river that crosses Buenos Aires and along which many popular neighborhoods have been built, forming a sort of urban barrier (1).

The environmental dimension subsequently fed his protean thinking, which developed significantly during the Synod on the Amazon in 2019. We discussed this process together, which he talks about very well in the book A Time to Change. Come, let’s talk, let’s dare to dream… (2). This interview with British journalist Austen Ivereigh is dedicated to getting out of the Covid crisis.

With the publication of Laudato si’, he first emphasizes the geopolitical and social dimension rather than just the environmental dimension. The challenge of sustainability, he believes, cuts across all generations.

In your opinion, can we speak of an ecological revolution under the pontificate of Francis? What novelty did he bring?

LL: François innovates through his words and gestures. This innovation leads us to change the way we see the world. I deeply believe in a “Francis era” which questions and invites all of humanity to enter a new paradigm.

The question of the ecological revolution is at once ethical, pastoral and political. I am thinking, for example, of the divestment of companies that continue to rely on the production of fossil fuels. I am also thinking of his positions on the rights to drinking water.

Francis appears in the landscape as the pope who invites us to take care of our common home. It is clear that ecology constitutes a particular column of his pontificate, even if there are other burning subjects, such as the question of migration, the fight against clericalism, synodality…

How does the ecological crisis affect Francis personally? Can we talk about eco-anxiety?

LL: The pope shows leadership when he calls on world leaders to build a just transition that ensures a sustainable future. His tears at the impact of the war in Ukraine are a faithful testament to the pain that runs through him when it comes to the future of the planet.

I keep the image of March 27, 2020 when, in the midst of a pandemic, Francis crosses Saint Peter’s Square alone to remind us that each of us counts and that no one saves himself alone. He tells us, as Jesus himself said to the apostles in the storm-tossed boat: why are you afraid, have you no faith? He calls us to a deep reflection on the value of hope. The pope is the one who makes us smile. He is not in “anxiety mode”, he knows and he believes that we can get through this crisis.

If I go back a bit, I also think that the final document and the postsynodal exhortation of Francis on the Amazon – “New paths for the Church and for integral ecology” – give us the keys to carry out our own transformation. The Amazon carries the ecological, social, pastoral and cultural dreams with which the Pope seizes us and lets himself be seized by this extraordinary ecosystem which brings 15% of the oxygen to the atmosphere. It reminds us that we are responsible for nature and that we must take care of it.

How are you continuing your work with François on the environmental issue?

LL: The pope’s environmental agenda is linked to the new challenges of synodality. The reform of the curia places these issues centrally on the agenda. I have no doubt that the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development – headed by Cardinal Michael Czerny -, together with the Argentinian theologian Emilce Cuda and the founder of the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network, the Peruvian Cardinal Pedro Barreto, are key players in this process.

I see there, on the part of Francis, a repoliticization (in the sense that we speak of a just policy), which articulates the ecological dimension with our obligations towards our conditions of existence, present and future. It helps us to understand how to live in community. Pope Francis speaks with all the necessary clarity.

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